European Best Destination 2014

This is one of Europe’s oldest tourist destinations, its wealth of artistic heritage, Port Wine, open-air leisure spaces and cultural life are just some of the reasons to visit this city. With a unique and dazzling landscape, the Upper Douro wine region is one of the places considered World Heritage by UNESCO. Go and discover the land where the famous Port Wine is produced.

Porto’s Short Tour: Highlights

Wander the streets of medieval Porto, from which both the country and the fortified wine take their name. Its wonderfully preserved architecture has earned it UNESCO World Heritage site status.

Torre dos Clérigos

Museum “História Natural UP”

Igreja das Carmelitas

A seventeenth-century church whose classical façade dates from the 1850s. The project has been attributed to the architect/painter Nicolau Nasoni. The altarpiece, of Porto rococo style, was considered to be a stylistically revolutionary piece. Building designated national monument.

Wine Spot

Porto, standing in a commanding position at the mouth of the Douro River, you can visit Vila Nova de Gaia, the heart of the Port Wine industry, served by terraced vineyards lining the slopes inland along the Douro Valley. The history of Porto wine connects the Portuguese and the British people and as far as we know they remain friends. The history of this liaison is worth reading and a deep research…

One of the Port Cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia
For the Ultimate Port Experience visit Taylor’s Port Cellars.

The Essence of Portugal

The Ways

There is a vast network of pilgrimage roads and paths to the shrine of the apostle St. James which snake and consolidate themselves throughout almost the whole of Europe and have led to a set of globally recognised ‘ways’, such as: the Primitive Way, the French Way, the Via de la Plata, the English Way, the Northern Way, the Route of the Sea of Arousa and River Ulla, the Fisterra-Muxía Way and the Portuguese Way.

Tradition in Porto

The Porto inhabitants love to recreate traditions and customs, recovering old practices and ways of living. The popular festivals, food and wine are always part of the collective celebration of these traditions, as a call for everyone to join in …

The bridge Don Luís I

Livraria Lello

Visit the bookshop. The history of the library is also the history of brothers Lello who opened the shop in 1906.

Estação de São Bento (Railway)

The S. Bento Railway Station was built at the beginning of the twentieth century on the exact location of the former Convent of S. Bento de Avé-Maria. The glass and iron structure was designed by the architect Marques da Silva. The vestibule is adorned with twenty thousand tiles painted by Jorge Colaço that illustrate the transport evolution and events of Portuguese history and life.

Sé Catedral

Construction dating from the twelfth/thirteenth century, in Romanesque style, that has been enlarged and renewed over the years up to its final setting, in the twentieth century, resulting in an idealized reconstitution of the medieval cathedral. Special mention goes to: the Gothic São João Evangelista Chapel and the cloister, from the fourteenth century; the enlargement of the main chapel, the Santíssimo Sacramento Chapel and its silver altar, from the eighteenth century (mannerist); the eighteenth century Baroque frescos in the main chapel and the sacristy, by Nicolau Nasoni, and the tiles in the cloister, by Vital Rifarto; the sculpture in the Baptism Chapel, by Teixeira Lopes (father) from the nineteenth century.

Muralha Fernandina

Majestic Café

Mosteiro S. Bento da Vitória

At the very heart of Porto, in Vitória parish, the São Bento da Vitória Monastery – a classified National Monument since 1977 – is one of the municipality’s most important religious buildings.

Under the auspices of Porto 2001 – European Capital of Culture, the Major Cloister was covered with an acoustic shell, a steel structure on four pillars, and received a wooden floor. In 2007, the Portuguese State conceded the TNSJ an important part of the building, which now hosts theatre shows, concerts and special events in the TNSJ’s programming, besides various events organized by outside institutions.

Gustave Eiffel designed Porto’s Maria Pia Bridge, opened in 1877, across a gorge in the Douro.The modern road bridge crosses the river beyond.

If you’re planning a visit to Porto, you must sample, at least “francesinha” and “Rojões” and because Douro Valley is the only producer of “Vinho Verde” have at least a glass of wine!